Interesting Insurance Information

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From the Institute for Child Health Policy List Serve:

Los Angeles Times Profiles Leapfrog Group

The Jan. 22 Los Angeles Times profiled the Leapfrog Group, a
14-month-old coalition of more than 90 public and private organizations
and "perhaps the most influential bloc of health care purchasers in the
nation." The Times reports that the group has pushed the "envelope of
reform with its own national agenda for reducing medical costs." The
group, which spends $52 billion per year on health coverage for about
one in 10 Americans, includes Fortune 500 companies, such as AT&T Corp.,
IBM Corp., Boeing Co., Exxon Mobil Corp. and General Motors Corp., as
well as state and city insurance and health care authorities. To
address the nation's "unraveling" system of managed care, the Leapfrog
Group has developed "what many say are viable industry reforms, but ones
that are on the groups' own terms and not without controversy." The
group has launched two Web-based programs -- a public Web site that
provides consumers with performance ratings for about 300 hospitals
nationwide and a private Web site for employees at five large New
York-area companies that ranks top hospitals affiliated with the state's
largest insurer -- that help measure hospital performance. The group
hopes to develop a system that will allow consumers to have "detailed
information about how well hospitals perform in terms of patient care
and medical outcomes." According to the Leapfrog Group, "by providing
such data, the rate of medical errors will decrease because consumers
will choose hospitals that perform successful surgeries, thus reducing
costs as well." Consumer and physician advocates have warned that "any
reforms being pushed by powerful health care purchasers" such as the
Leapfrog Group "will be motivated primarily by keeping costs low, not
improving care." However, the Times reports that most health care
analysts, academicians and physicians "generally perceive the efforts by
groups such as Leapfrog as positive at a time when the system is badly
frayed." Suzanne Delbanco, executive director of the Leapfrog Group,
said, "Our goal is to save lives and reduce preventable medical mistakes
by giving consumers the information they need to make more-informed
medical choices" (White, Los Angeles Times, 1/22).

John Reiss, Ph.D.
Chief, Div Policy & Program Affairs
Institute for Child Health Policy
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
University of Florida
5700 SW 34th Street, Suite 323
Gainesville, Fl 32605
jgr@ichp.edu www.ichp.edu